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OTTAWA — Canadians must make the protection of their nation’s lakes and rivers a top priority, warns former prime minister John Turner.

“Water is crucial. And Canadians ought not to neglect this. It is one of our great assets,” he said in an exclusive interview with Postmedia News.

Turner’s interest in Canada’s water system stretches back decades. As a young MP in the early 1960s, he helped renegotiate the Columbia River Treaty, an agreement between Canada and the United States that governs the operation of dams on water systems that affect both countries.

Now 83, Turner is honorary director of World Wildlife Fund Canada. He has a cottage on Lake of the Woods, a massive body of water in northern Ontario that stretches into Manitoba and the United States.

He recently helped persuade the International Joint Commission to monitor water quality of that lake, and called it just one example of how Canada must work to preserve what he calls this country’s “water footprint.”

Not only is it a resource that many Canadians with cottages cherish, but Turner has also noted in the past that many companies — from those in the oil sector to lumber — also need water for their own production operations.

“It’s our best asset,” Turner stressed in the interview. Canada has the third-largest fresh water supply in the world, behind Brazil and Russia.

Turner made the comments as part of a Postmedia News project in which all of Canada’s six living former prime ministers were interviewed on issues of the day. Turner, who had a lengthy political career in cabinet and the opposition benches, was prime minister in 1984.

Measured against other countries, Canada’s economy is well managed, Turner said. Nonetheless, he said, the government should have three goals: Get the deficit under control; bring expenditures in line; and encourage job growth.

“Complicated in its application. Very simple in its statement.”

He said Canada should also “encourage” its energy production, particularly in the West, with one caveat: environmental surveillance.

“I’m pro-oilsands but we’ve got to make sure that we cut down the environmental impact.”

2. The state of the political system and public participation:

In the early 1960s, Turner recalls, he gave a speech in which he said: “We had better go back to the days of Magna Carta — 1215, when they liberated Parliament, sent members back to their ridings to be independently elected.” Yet in the five decades since the remarks, the parliamentary system has only weakened, he said.

Free votes for MPs in the House of Commons should be standard, Turner said, except for Throne speeches and budgets (though not, he added, the Harper government’s sprawling omnibus budget bills that veer into policies that aren’t strictly taxation matters).

“Every other vote on pieces of legislation should be left to the intellect and to the emotion of the individual member of Parliament — regardless of party — and their constituents.”

Moreover, with a 61 per cent voter turnout in last year’s federal election, it’s vital Canadians once again participate in their political system, Turner argued.

“We’ve got to work at it from the grassroots, from the riding up. We’ve got to get involved again in political parties. All parties.”

“Democracy does not happen by accident.”

He said it’s critical to restore respectability to the role of politicians, stressing that he has always believed that “politics is a vocation, a public service.”

“St. Augustine, the great bishop of Carthage in the fourth century said: ‘To whom God has given some talent, let him give it back.’”

“Today, let him or her give it back.”

3. The state of national unity:

Canadians are “fairly comfortable” with their country right now — “despite our politicians,” Turner said. “Basically, the tone of the country is pretty good.”

Still, he was concerned about Quebec after this fall’s election of the separatist Parti Quebecois.

“The federal government is not strongly represented in Quebec and the government will now have to pay a good deal more attention to what is happening there.”

Meanwhile, Turner said the tension building in Western Canada — between British Columbia and Alberta over the proposed Northern Gateway oil pipeline — could be resolved with the right leadership.

Since he knows both premiers, Turner said he believes “I could go out and solve that problem tomorrow with those two provinces.

“I believe under the right encouragement, it could happen. It’s an opportunity for the prime minister to intervene.”

4. The health-care system:

As a board member of a Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, Turner has a particular interest in the question.

“In international terms, we rank very high,” he said of Canada’s medicare system. “In terms of the basic fundamentals, we have, I think, a very efficient system.”

Still, there are challenges: “Cut down the wait time. Cut down the emergency time. Get things moving faster. Know how to respond to emergencies with more speed and more efficiency and more care.”

5. Foreign policy and Canada’s relationship with the United States:

Turner recalled an era when he was finance minister and prime minister Pierre Trudeau didn’t “get along” with president Richard Nixon. So Turner made trips to Washington every three months to meet his counterpart, George Shultz. Turner and Shultz were usually armed with an agenda cleared by their bosses, Trudeau and Nixon.

“We’d play a couple of sets of tennis on the White House courts, have a couple of scotches, go up and have dinner with the president – Nixon, myself and Schultz.”

They would reach agreement on most items and do it not through “bureaucratic overkill” but rather, “on a handshake,” said Turner.

“We’ve got to do more of that with the United States. On a regular basis. On a first-name basis.”

When Turner entered politics, his party was led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Lester B. Pearson.

“We were internationally committed,” Turner recalled. “The fact that we are no longer on the Security Council of the United Nations is not a good sign. I think we’ve got to get back into international politics.”

Canada must protect its ‘best asset’ — water — warns former prime minister John Turner

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